WHO Comes Under Fire for Saying Kids Under 4 Should Be Taught About 'Early Childhood Masturbation'
The World Health Organization is once again facing increased scrutiny and outrage.
The renewed public outcry is not, however, directed at the shoddy initial response to the ongoing global coronavirus pandemic, instead coming as a result of unsettling details recently discovered in the organization’s child and adolescent sexual education guidelines.
Set forth by global health experts as the baseline curricular “standards” for European educators, the guidelines advocate exposure of public school students in every age group to information regarding safe sexual behavior, homosexuality, “gender identity” and masturbation.
Even children under the age of 4 are specifically prescribed such education under the WHO’s standards, with “human reproduction (where babies come from)” and “early childhood masturbation” among the suggested lessons for this age group.
The discovery has not been met kindly by Christian organizations and culturally conservative commentators, many of whom suggest the United Nations-run organization’s standards will only encourage early, and unhealthy, sexual behaviors among children and adolescents.
The Christian Institute last month went to battle with Warwickshire County in the United Kingdom over attempts to implement the guidelines in its local curriculum.
The organization eventually broke the county of its new curriculum with a “legal threat,” publicly arguing that “children should not be exposed to material which sexualises them.”
No such concerns, however, seem to exist at the Collaborating Centre for Sexual and Reproductive Health, which holds on its website that “a positive interpretation of sexuality” must be fostered from the earliest possible age in order to improve sexual health outcomes throughout the developmental cycle.
“Holistic sexuality education gives children and young people unbiased, scientifically correct information on all aspects of sexuality and, at the same time, helps them to develop the skills to act upon this information,” the center wrote. “It hence prevents sexual ill health and … supports children in getting aware of their own limits and in being able to communicate these, supports children and young people to make self-determined and respectful choices.”
This is apparently carried out in the organization’s model by encouraging educators to develop in students ages 4 and under the ability to “express [one’s] own needs, wishes and boundaries, for example in the context of ‘playing doctor'” and foster “curiosity regarding [one’s] own and others’ bodies.”
As the model progresses, students ages 4 through 12 are more rapidly exposed to an expanded list of concepts including “sexual rights,” the ability to “influence” one’s fertility and the “right” to “explore” one’s gender.
Discussions of the “first sexual experience” are also suggested early on in the curriculum.
The Christian Institute was not the only conservative organization or commentator to target the WHO for its sexual education policy.
Matt Walsh at The Daily Wire also called out the “horrifying” guidelines in an Op-Ed late last week, arguing the WHO’s plans to provide comprehensive sexual education to toddlers and elementary school-age students across Europe was reason enough to entirely defund the organization.
The WHO has faced no shortage of controversy in recent months, embattled as a result of increased scrutiny stemming from the organization’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic and alleged favoritism toward China.
President Donald Trump in April halted U.S. funding of the institution, accusing it of “severely mismanaging and covering up the spread of the coronavirus,” according to Politico.
“With the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, we have deep concerns whether America’s generosity has been put to the best use possible,” Trump said.
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